The U.S. Asks: What About the Maid?

A security official stood guard outside the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, Dec. 18.

As India continues to bristle over allegations of mistreatment of one of its diplomats in the U.S., American authorities prosecuting the case are asking a different question: Why is no one bothered about the maid who brought the case and alleged she was underpaid and overworked?

Devyani Khobragade is accused of submitting false documents to obtain a U.S. visa for her domestic help, Sangeeta Richard, before starting her job as a deputy consul general at the Indian Embassy in New York in November 2012. Ms. Khobragade was arrested last week after her help alleged she was paid below the minimum wage required under visa rules.

In a statement Wednesday, Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York prosecuting the case, asked, “why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse?”

Jon Alder, the president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association in the U.S., also pondered a similar question in light of India’s uproar over the investigation. “Perhaps Indian officials should direct their outrage towards Ms. Khobragade for her alleged visa fraud and the alleged servant wages she paid her housekeeper,” he said Wednesday.

Tensions between India and the U.S. escalated this week after news reports said Ms. Khobragade had been strip-searched following her arrest. India, in retaliation, dismantled security barriers on streets around the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and revoked some privileges given to American consular officials. The Obama administration sought to tamp down anger in India. Secretary of State John Kerry, in a statement on Wednesday, expressed regret over the episode.

India has been seeking to address the issue of the pay differential between what it pays Indian domestic servants it employs abroad and wages earned by their U.S. counterparts, according to Krishna V. Rajan, a former Indian ambassador and former president of the Association of Indian Diplomats.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, said: “We are looking at ways and means to insure that there is no ambiguity left” over the status of these Indian workers abroad. “We have to look at some shift in status of these people, the issue of immunity and the issue of what is perceived to be U.S law on salaries” to prevent this happening again, he added.

It is not clear what progress has been made but the sticking point seems to be that if visa rules require the wages of the domestic helpers to be at par with economies such as the U.S., they would outstrip salaries of most of the Indian diplomats.

“An Indian diplomat is not the highest paid in the world,” said Mr. Rajan who has served as an ambassador to Nepal, the U.K., Algeria and Zambia and was a senior diplomatic officer in Washington. “We have a different lifestyle, an austerity which appeals to us,” Mr. Rajan said. “We don’t necessarily spend as lavishly as other cultures might. Though things are changing.”

The Ministry of External Affairs does not publish the remuneration rates of its officials abroad. Domestic workers attached to diplomats travel under official passports and are only partly paid by the Indian government. The remainder comes from the diplomat’s own pocket, according to an official at India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

In India, there is no set wage for a domestic worker who can expect to receive between 3,000 and 20,000 rupees a month in New Delhi depending on the level of work required, and according to the neighborhood where the employer resides. In the U.S., in order to obtain a visa for a domestic worker, the employer must commit contractually to paying the minimum wage, not including other benefits such as board and accommodation.

The external affairs official said that there was a “systemic problem” with the pay structure for domestic servants of India’s diplomatic staff abroad. The difficult of solving it though comes down to the question: “How can you be paying the maid more than the diplomat?” the official said.

In interviews with the Indian media, Ms. Khobragade’s father said his daughter was paid about $6,500 a month, and couldn’t afford to pay her helper $4,500 a month, as required under U.S. visa laws.

“We have to change the whole system…this is not the first time this has been going on. Even the U.S. Embassy knows that it [the visa contract] was just a formality,” the ministry official added.

The U.S. Attorney, in his statement, said that the Indian government was aware of the legal issue and “that its diplomats and consular officers were at risk of violating the law.”

“The question then may be asked: Is it for U.S. prosecutors to look the other way, ignore the law and the civil rights of victims (again, here an Indian national), or is it the responsibility of the diplomats and consular officers and their government to make sure the law is observed?” Mr. Bharara asked in his statement.

According to the ministry official, the U.S. government is ignoring benefits afforded to domestic workers in diplomatic settings.

If everything including food, lodging, a flight home for holidays every two years, and medical care is taken into account, “whatever they get is pocket money, which they are saving,” the official added.